There will never, ever be any monetization of this game whatsoever other than possible entirely new Expansion ARK's (whole new worlds as expansion pack).

There will never be any pay items, not even cosmetics -- there WILL be tons of cosmetic "item skins" but they will all be earnable in-game rewards and time-limited free events to encourage gameplay, nothing ever to spend any $$$ on.

The term Loot Crate simply was employed to denote high-value item cache

To be clear, we at Studio Wildcard are very much against any in-game monetization whatsoever. We've seen it distort too many otherwise good games.

How many characters are we going to have?

One per server

Will there be a FOV slider?

Yes, you'll be able to slide between a 70 - 110 range *- More on this in the latest Ark Digest

Game Optimization + Specs

It doesn't require a top-tier video card but it does require 4 GB system RAM currently. However, if you have a mid-to-low graphics card you will definitely have to reduce graphics to make the game not look as good as it can be. But yeah it has a TON of configurable video options so you can pretty much get it to run on any video card down to like a $100 budget card.

That said, we plan to optimize, optimize, optimize as we head through Early Access. You can never be too optimized, and we're quite good at that

The DK2 implementation supports full range of motion freelook using all the sensors. Leaning in and using 3D virtual space to line up that arrow shot just right is suuuuuuper satisfying, especially when it results in a Dilophosaurus headshot, makes you feel like a real archery expert

Ingame detaylar:

Will there be character customisation

Yes, you will be able to successfully change your gender, as well as:Skin ColorEye ColorHair ColorBody and Face Proportions (about 30 different sliders)Character Name (different than your Steam profile name)

Also you can dye all clothing items (if you craft the appropriate colored dyes from a variety of seeds in a cooking pot), and some clothing items have optional visual skins that you can apply.

Can survivors climb trees and build upon them?

You can't currently climb trees, but that's an interesting idea that we'll consider as we progress. You can't directly make treehouses, but by building upwards with ladders you can make structures that are effectively nestled high in the trees.

How many creatures can we expect to see by Early Access Launch?

About 30 unique creature types (Dinos and other extinct creatures) at Early Access launch, and beyond that rapidly expanding up to 70+ for our full release. Dinos are the main draw for the game, however ARK itself is actually composed of a range of extinct creatures from all era. For starters you may have noticed the Sabertooth Tiger in the promo artwork, as well as the Woolly Mammoth released in our initial Dino Dossiers.

And there are far more non-dino extinct creatures both already in the game and being planned. More of them will be revealed with their own dossiers in the days ahead. We love dinosaurs, but we also love all sorts of extinct creatures and are intending to represent just about every major kind of extinct creature as the development continues!

Will the game have insects?

Giant Dragonflies and Ants (as the actual corresponding prehistoric species) are indeed incoming, among other insects.

Spawn Items

As of now you do not spawn with any items, however you do have the Engram for crafting a Primitive Stone Pickaxe. You'll find that gathering the initial materials is fairly simple, as you can pick up stone and punch trees for materials. It won't take you long to craft the pickaxe

How large is the Ark?

Regarding the size of the ARK, it's currently approximately 36 square kilometers of walk-able land mass. There's also about 12 square kilometers of ocean, and of course that's just 2 dimensional measurement. There are very tall mountains that rise above the cloud layer, and oceans are quite deep with major underwater reefs, and there's a massive underground cave system that adds about 50% more traversable area to the ARK. The caves themselves are akin to dungeons in many ways, so while they can be inhabited by players, they are not easy places to survive long-term...

As for other ARKs, currently they are just copies of the same ARK with different statistical variation of resources and creatures to make it easier or more difficult. But as we proceed past Early Access, we intend both to introduce new ARK physical layouts and also add the procedurally-generated world feature. And of course there will be player-created Steam Workshop ARKs

How is raiding going to be in Ark?

On a live server, you can indeed be raided when you're offline. However the game has a few factors to mitigate this:

- Your pets can be set to help defend your base with various adjustable AI settings, and some pets can be very effective for this purpose depending on the species.

- At the later technology stages, you can build electrically-powered automated turrets.

- You can also transfer your items and character to another server or to offline (local play) mode before logging off to keep a digital copy of your stuff, however this requires accessing an Obelisk data transfer point on the ARK so there is some challenge in doing so.

- Also, when you die in the game you will not lose everything, as your player character statistics and engrams (memorized blueprints) are retained after respawn.

What can you tell us about building?

You place a floor, then snap walls, doorframes, doors, ceilings, other floors, etc.At the moment, things are a bit gridlike, but we'll be updating that as we continue development of the game.

You can make a thatch building, then upgrade it piece-by-piece with wood sections (I'd advise upgrading your walls first) if you'd like. No need to start a new building.

Also, can we design the floor/foundation size and shape or it comes pre-designed?

It comes designed as square units of a fairly small size -- with that you just snap the square units together to make larger shapes. You can also build pillars, etc, to reinforce your building via the structural integrity system.

What can you tell us about Resources?

They'll be fairly spread out, possibly with the exception of a few. To expand on this...some resources can only be found in specific areas like the mountains, caves, or underwater zones. After they're gathered they will respawn after a period of time.

How do beds and sleeping bags work?

Sleeping bags and beds are your in-game respawn points (if you have none, then you get a random point on the beach in your character's region). Sleeping bags are one-time-use and are locked to your specific character, and you can pick them up to move them. Beds are re-usable and are shared by your entire Tribe, but you can't pick the up to move them after placing. And yeah they have a cooldown timer indeed!

How do you tame a creature?

To tame a creature, you need to knock it out using a variety of possible methods such as blunt trauma to the head, tranquilizer, or certain other weapons (effectiveness of the various methods varies by creature). Then once it's in a torpor state, you need to feet it food that is appropriate for its kind of creature carnivore/herbivore and also some creatures have more specialized food preferences. After enough food to restore it to health, it'll awake as a tamed creature.

However this is easier said than done, because while it is in torpor, its torpor status is decreasing and it may wake up too early -- and there are various methods you can use to keep it unconscious long enough to become tamed. Also you may have to be watchful of other predators while you're undergoing the taming process. The higher-level the creature is (and they do indeed have area-randomized levels), the tougher it is to tame. And the better job you do at taming it (less food utilized), the higher its resulting statistics after being tamed.

How will Pet customisation work?

You can't change the skin color of your pet, that's determined by its genetics (i.e. random but also influenced by its natural level that you found the creature at, as well as its gender). So if you see a particularly cool looking Dino in the wild, you'll want to get it before it escapes!

However, you can indeed name the pet after you tame it, as well as level it up however you want. And yes there are cosmetics you can apply to the Pet, currently just choice of saddle which can be painted, and will have various aesthetic variations. Later on we plan to introduce war-paint for humans and dinosaurs, to enable further visual customization.

I noticed Boss-type monsters in the trailer, are they tameable too?

You'll be able to tame the larger Dinosaurs and Creatures, as well as sea-life creatures such as the Megalodons and Plesiosaurus. As for taming bosses, it won't be available during Early Access however beyond that.. we may well

Do tamed creatures suffer perma-death?

Yes, Pets suffer perma-death if killed on the ARK. However we will have a feature in the game so that Pets can be digitized out of the ARK to transfer their data from online play, to local play. This can only be done at an Obelisk transmission point and we'll have more on that later!

Do Dinosaurs hunt and interact with each other?

Yes indeed they do hunt and feed on each other -- according to a fairly complex predator-prey dominance hierarchy as well.

For example, the Rex will favor attacking herbivores of a certain size, but will tend to ignore very small herbivores that aren't worth his time, and he will also attack weaker carnivores but only if there are no better targets around, etc.

Herbivores, depending on their temperament, may defend or flee depending on their specific dispositions and their health status, and they may also come to the aid of allies of the same species, and especially their mates (yes most of the creatures have genders and it is very beneficial to have a tamed dino of each gender nearby, they will become mate-boosted).

So as you travel through the ARK, you'll often see ongoing NPC battles play out... and you can use this to your hunting advantage

Will Dinosaurs breed?

The idea has been considered. Currently we have male/female dinosaurs who have certain traits based on their proximity/relation to dinosaurs of the opposite gender. We wont have it for Early Access launch, but who knows what me might get up to

You can also use a ranged whistle to tell a specific dino or a whole group of dinos to follow you or another character/dino, stop, or attack.

Based on their AI state, they'll also defend each other, nearby allies/structures, etc.

Can you give us a general idea about the PvP in ARK and is there an effective way to fight back?

PvPvE is definitely a challenge, but there are factors in the game that should make it a little easier for players to handle/avoid other hostile players. Specifically, you can choose a region to respawn in to help team up with your friends, and also the capability to tame creatures/dinos makes it a little easier to escape a combat situation if you have the right mount. Also, while physical items remain on your corpse when killed, your memory "engram" character progression and character statistics stay with you upon respawn. Finally, there are methods to transmit your data out of the ARK to another server which can be useful in case you wish to back something up or transition to another ARK.

Can we build Underwater at Early Access launch?

Underwater base building will be partially in at Early Access launch: you won't be able to build vacuum sealed underwater bases, but you will be able to build in underwater air pockets that are like mini-caves embedded in reefs along the ocean floor. However, building out the technology tier that will include vacuum sealed structures is a post Early Access priority.

Cannibalism..?

Yes

Can you tell us more about Sleeping/Unconsciousness?

When you log off your character, or if you suffer serious trauma, or eat the wrong thing, your body becomes unconscious. This will allow other Survivors to interact with you. They can steal your items, kill you, and even feed you! But there's something else you can do in ARK... you can drag their ragdoll sleeping body around... move it to wherever you want... even move it into a prison cell and enslave it (or just put it in a very dangerous position for when it awakes)... you can force-feed an unconscious person food & water to keep them alive....

and by enslaving, we mean:

You can physically confine them and keep them alive indefinitely if you maintain their health. You can then do such useful things as extracting blood from them to create transfusion items, or using their poop as fertilizer, etc.

Something to also keep in mind is that when you're logged-out, you don't lose water/food status. However, if you're logged-in, you do. So if someone is logged-in and is trying to starve or dehydrate themselves to death, you can force-feed them food to keep them alive in your prison.